Little Thing Called Life
by deadly medley
Summary: Prompt from samanthapetrelli: Roy is on the team and friends with Felicity, she worries she might be pregnant and Roy goes to buy her a pregnancy test. He runs into Oliver at the store. (Disclaimer: Iown nothing!)


It doesn't take him long to notice something's off.

He's been part of Team Arrow - he loathes the name but puts up with it only because Felicity loves it so much - for a few months now, and prides himself on knowing his partners pretty well. Most of it, he has to admit, is because the blonde nerd -

("Call her that again, and you're dead," Oliver once growled, after Roy asked about the _hot nerd in the tight skirt. _Needless to say, Roy hasn't uttered the words since - he's a one-woman man, who happens to enjoy living, thank you.)

- pointed it all out to him.

After a mission gone wrong, Oliver barely escaped the crime scene with his life, and had, quite literally, stumbled into Roy on his way out. The way Roy tells it, he saved the man's life, which wasn't exactly a lie; if Roy hadn't taken the hooded man to his car, and sped to Verdant, Oliver would've died that night. In truth, though, he was taking him to Thea, hoping she would know what to do - if it hadn't been for the crazed blonde pulling him towards the Foundry, the story would've been completely different.

If you ask Oliver, the kid didn't do anything but get in the way.

Since the incident, the billionaire has, somehow, managed to hold a pretty impressive grudge towards his savior -

("Roy," Felicity laughed when Roy shared his thoughts. "Of course he's holding a grudge. You're dating his baby sister.")

- and was more than reluctant to allow him to join Team Arrow. Diggle wasn't much more welcoming, and still gives Roy a hard look whenever the boy speaks up.

Thank God for Felicity Smoak. If not for the woman, Roy would be truly and utterly alone in this... thing. She was, admittedly, just as suspicious of the boy at first, but has grown to become like a sister to him. She makes it a point to answer all of his questions before Oliver or Dig can snap at him, and she jokes with him and she's the only reason he even puts up with this crap, his admiration for the Green Arrow be damned.

She lets him in on all of the little things she notices about the other two men, and he finds out quite a few things about herself, even though she doesn't share.

That being said, it doesn't take him more than a few minutes in the woman's presence to notice that something's not right with her. She fidgets a bit more than usual, she flinches away from everyone's touches... and, for the most part, she's silent.

If Oliver and Dig notice, they don't say anything.

Even while he's getting his ass kicked by an ex-soldier and a billionaire turned vigilante, he keeps his eyes on the blonde woman. She shifts uncomfortably, and he has a feeling it has very little to do with his staring.

While Oliver and Dig spar with each other, he takes the opportunity and makes his way to her station. She keeps her eyes firmly on the computer screen, though he knows she knows he's there. He bends down and lets out a frustrated sigh. "Okay, what's going on with you?"

It's whispered, of course. Oliver is very possessive when it comes to everything associated with him, especially his sister and his IT consultant. Every time Roy talks to Felicity, he ends up driving home with a few more bruises.

(He figures the man is jealous and has to stop himself from reminding the man that he's dating his sister, and Felicity is a bit too old for him.

Both comments would leave him with broken bones, he's sure.)

Felicity glances at the teen and throws a glance at the older two before she really looks at Roy for the first time. Her look raises something in him, and it's a feeling he's familiar with - that feeling he gets when Thea storms into his house with tears streaming down her face, after a particularly rough fight with her brother. "What's wrong?" He asks through gritted teeth.

"I'm going home," she announces abruptly, causing all of the men in the room to stop what they're doing to look at her. Oliver and Dig both harden their looks at how close Roy is to her, but she doesn't seem to care. "It's getting late, and I have a meeting with Walter at six in the morning, and he's going to be upset if I'm late, and we've put him through enough, the last thing he needs is to stress over the blonde IT girl showing up to his meetings late, because she has a night job at his own stepson's club, which he doesn't know about but that's besides the point."

Oliver has to call Felicity's name three times to get her to stop. He smiles at her, and Roy takes a moment to marvel at the fact that the wall of steel actually smiled. "You can go."

Felicity nods wordlessly and starts walking towards the door, not even waving as the men call out their good nights. Roy follows her closely, muttering something about women walking alone at this time of night. They're almost to her car when she whirls around so quickly, he stumbles back a bit. He winces inwardly and thanks God Oliver didn't see that. She stares at him for a few moments, her mouth slightly open as if her words are stuck in her throat.

Finally, she mutters out, "I'm fine, Roy. I'll see you tomorrow." She lays a hand on his arm and gives him a small smile before she gets in her car.

She's gone before he can put his thoughts together. He heads back to the lair, but his mind's not with him.

And if Oliver is slightly more brutal than he usually is, Roy barely notices.

Growing up in the Glades, Roy has never been a light sleeper. One can only wake up to gunshots so many times, before everything wakes them up.

So when he hears a deep rumble at eight o'clock in the morning, his eyes snap open and he lifts an arm in a groggy attempt to protect himself from whatever had the nerve to wake him up. It sounds again and he groans, realizing that it's just his phone vibrating like crazy on his dresser.

It's a text from Felicity. It reads:

**Get dressed. I'll be there in twenty.**

He groans again, dropping the phone. He lies there for a few moments before he finally drags himself up.

He's pulling a black sweatshirt over his head when his doorbell rings. He swears under his breath, making his way to the door. What is with the women in his life and coming to his door like it's nothing? Don't they realize how dangerous it really is?

He grabs his leather jacket and opens the door. Before he can scold her about coming here, she grabs his wrist and drags him to her car, and he barely manages to pull his door closed. He takes his hand from her grip so he can lock the door, but finds her struggling with the door of her car. Her hands are shaking so bad, he has to open the door for her. "Don't," she snaps when he opens his mouth to question it.

He takes the hint, and gets in on the passenger side. He's barely strapped in before she pulls off.

The car is dead silence. There's no music, no humming, no useless babble coming from the usually energetic blonde. It's unnerving, to say the least. It takes ten minutes for him to realize exactly what makes this whole trip feel wrong.

"Aren't you supposed to be in a meeting right now?"

She winces, obviously caught in her lie. "There was no meeting. Walter's in the UK, visiting his family."

"And Oliver fell for that?" And here he was, thinking the man was all knowing.

Felicity throws him a sad smile. "Since the Undertaking, Walter and Oliver don't talk much. They may share the company, but that's about as far as it goes."

Roy nods slowly. "Okay... why did you lie?"

Felicity bites her lip and Roy's fully prepared for another lie. Instead, she blurts out: "I'm late."

Roy stares at her blankly. "What, is that supposed to mean something?"

If her glare and the way she continues to chew on her bottom lip is any indication, yes. It takes Roy a few more moments before it hits him. He remembers hearing those words from Thea once, a few weeks after Oliver disappeared, again.

A few weeks after they first slept together.

To him, the words hadn't meant anything. Not until he saw the box in her hand. (Thankfully, all tests came back negative, because it took Oliver significantly less time to come home, this time. As if the man wasn't protective enough.)

"You're pregnant?" The words come out a lot louder than he intends. But it's not his fault - she's the one dropping bombs, here, not him.

Felicity flinches at the volume of his voice. Her eyes start to water, and her grip on the steering wheel tightens. "I - I think so." Her voice breaks and Roy is torn between puking from the thought of dealing with a pregnant woman and hunting down the asshole who slept with her, who left her feeling like she couldn't tell them about it.

_Maybe she did tell him about it, and he didn't want anything to do with it._ The thought does nothing but make Roy want to put on Oliver's GA suit and put a few arrows in someone's throat. "Who?" He growls.

Felicity takes a deep, shaky breath. "Can we not talk about that?"

There's no way in hell Roy's going to let it go. Her lack of response only made him want to kill this guy even more - and tell Oliver and Dig about it, too. But he knows better than to push. _Later_, he vows. He'll question her, later.

Two minutes later, they pull up to a convenience store. For a while, they sit in the car before Felicity speaks again. "I just... I need to buy a test. But..."

"You can't do it," he finishes. He gives her an alarmed look, realizing what exactly she's asking him to do. "You want me to do it?"

"Please," she pleads, giving him large, watering eyes that instantly crumbles every wall he's set up. "I've tried going in there and buying them, but I _can't." _

He opens his mouth to argue, but one more look at those eyes and he's a goner. With a grumble, he grabs the twenty out of her hands ("Exactly how many tests do you want me to buy?") and goes into the store.

Ten minutes later and he's grabbed five different tests. Isn't that what he's supposed to do? So if one says one thing, there's four more to either back it up or prove it wrong. He has no idea how or when Felicity plans on taking all of these tests without anyone finding out, but he decides to leave that decision up to her.

"Roy?"

He freezes. His body tenses up and his eyes squeeze shut with recognition. "You've got to be fucking kidding me," he mutters, refusing to believe that this is actually his life.

He considers his options.

He could make a break for it. Drop the tests, run to the car, and tell Felicity to choose a different store. Preferably, one in Coast City, where this most definitely won't happen. But it's no use. If he runs, Oliver will follow and there's no doubt that he'll catch up before Roy even reaches the car.

He could simply go on, as if he hadn't heard his name being called. But it's too late. He's already frozen and tensed up, and Oliver will just call again, if he has to, so that's out.

There's nothing he can do at this point. There's no way he can hide five pregnancy tests from the man with eyes that would make a hawk jealous.

He slowly turns around and flinches, seeing Oliver's usual bright, charming, tense, strained and terrifying smile in place. He wishes that he could just make up some lie and be done with it, but the second Oliver glances down at the tests in his hands, that dream flies out the window.

Roy opens his mouth to say something, but his mouth is dry. He clears his throat and tries again. "What are you doing here?"

"Shopping," Oliver answers, holding up a bottle of juice, and Roy resists the urge to literally kick himself. It's a juice that he keeps stocked up in his fridge, that Thea has become addicted to. Of course she would send her big brother all the way to the Glades to buy some for her. Of course. "What are you doing here? With a handful of pregnancy tests?"

"I - they're not - Thea's not -" The words offer no comfort, obviously. They only serve to make Oliver angrier as he takes a step forward and then another until they're face to face, his expression darkening.

"Are you cheating on my little sister?"

"No!" Roy shouts. The idea is ridiculous. He loves that girl. He wouldn't cheat on her if he came home to find the hottest woman on Earth sprawled across his bed, naked. In fact, he's pretty sure he _has_ come home to that sight a few times.

Oliver takes another step back, and Roy can almost literally feel the rage rolling off of his in waves. "If," the man growls lowly. "I find out that you are cheating on Thea, or that she's pregnant, you're going to wish I'd let you die that night."

The blood drains from Roy's face and bile rises, but he gulps it back and nods.

Oliver glares at him for a few more seconds before he steps back and makes his way to the check out line, as if he didn't just threaten the life of a nineteen year old.

Roy doesn't move from that spot until Oliver is long gone.

When he gets to the car, he doesn't say a single thing to Felicity about the tests or about Oliver. The only thing he says is, "Drive."

Felicity doesn't go to work that night. Or the next day.

Roy knows why.

When she does come back to the Foundry, her eyes immediately find Roy's and the look she gives him is more than enough to confirm his fears. He moves to go... hug her or something, but their moment is interrupted by their other partners.

"Felicity," Dig greets cheerfully. She gives him a small smile and continues moving towards her desk, not saying a word.

"Where have you been?" Oliver questions, jumping down from the salmon ladder. He grabs a towel and wipes his face off, and Roy notes that this is the first time Felicity hasn't stopped to stare.

Felicity opens her mouth to lie, and Roy winces when she stops herself. Whatever lie she's prepared to use, it's useless now. She can't even get the words out. She gives Roy another look, before she takes a deep breath.

And she starts rambling. She jumps in so fast, Roy has no idea what she's talking about, or what she's saying at all. From the looks on Oliver and Dig's face, he's not the only one. He holds back a sad sigh when he realizes that he's not the only one who knows Felicity.

She rambles when she's nervous.

Finally, he decides to take pity on her and clears his throat, effectively shutting her up. A blush creeps up her face, and she spins her chair towards the computers.

Oliver and John look at each other before glancing back at the woman. A few seconds later, they're punching and blocking and kicking and grunting.

Roy knows that moving is too risky right now, if they're trying to keep this a secret. He stares at the woman, until she glances back at him. She bites her lip for a moment before mouthing one word.

_Positive._

He's not surprised. But he has to know. So he mouths back, _all of them?_

She nods, and Roy feels dizzy. He doesn't know why. He already figured she was pregnant, and the baby definitely isn't _his_, but he's never dealt with a pregnant woman before, and he has no idea how he's going to do it now. Before that happens, they still have to find someway to tell Oliver and Diggle about it, and God knows how _that's_ going to play out.

All of the questions and concerns bouncing around in his head only serve to give him a headache and he releases a quiet groan.

This is not his life.

Turns out, he doesn't have to tell Oliver and Dig.

(Though he wishes he did, because after the incident at the store, Oliver chose to be ten times as rough as he usually is.)

They find out themselves.

Roy walks into the Foundry one morning, two weeks after her pregnancy was confirmed, to find all three of them sitting in total silence. Felicity is sitting in her chair, facing them, sniffling quietly as tears run down her cheeks and Roy has to stop himself from running to her. Oliver stares at her, his expression unreadable. Dig stares in shock and a bit of confusion.

Roy doesn't know if he said something, or made a noise, because all three of them turn to look at him at once. He focuses on the blonde woman. "I told them," she croaks and his eyes widen.

"_You knew?"_

Roy snaps his head to look at Oliver, who looks just about ready to make good on his threat. "I..."

"I needed his help," Felicity interrupted, holding back a sob. "He... he bought the tests for me."

Roy watches the information sink in.

"We found out," Dig starts, his tone betraying his shock, confusion and hurt. "Because you were puking in the bathroom." _But you told the kid._ The words aren't said, but everyone hears them.

Usually, Roy makes the argument that he isn't a kid, but he figures now isn't the time.

"I'm sorry," Felicity sobs and Dig's expression softens, because how the hell can you be mad at a crying, pregnant woman? She hadn't been in this situation before, she was confused. She didn't know how they would react.

Dig sighs and opens his arms. Felicity launches herself into his comforting arms, and Roy can't help but feel like he's intruding on a personal moment, so he looks away.

Oliver is long gone.

The next few days are tense.

Dig takes up Roy's job of keeping an extra eye on Felicity and making sure that she's taking care of herself.

Oliver doesn't say anything to her.

Roy gladly takes his rough training (or, as he likes to call them, his daily beatings), because in some ways he deserves it. He shouldn't have kept the pregnancy a secret.

But Oliver's punches and kicks aren't as fast and as accurate now. Whenever he hears Felicity's voice, or hears Dig say something to her, he falters a bit.

Dig has taken him down four times this week alone.

Roy actually lands a punch.

He doesn't know what's going on with the man, but it's bad.

Promises, he realizes one night, suck.

Diggle had been roped into babysitting his nephew, and because of Oliver being weird, Felicity would be left alone in the Foundry, for the most part. Roy promised that he would check in when he could, but he was working overtime, and couldn't stay. He promised he would bring her whatever she needed.

Now, he regrets it. Because, so far, she's asked for some takeout from Big Belly Burger, a cell phone charger, fives glasses of wine (which he had to deny her) and a bag of popcorn.

And, this time, a blanket.

He's spent more time running to and from the store, than he has in the club. He knows she's doing it on purpose, just to toy with him, but now it's taxing on his patience and he's one trip away from blowing up at the woman.

"So you're just going to keep avoiding me?"

The question throws him off guard, and it takes a few seconds to realize that it's not directed towards him. Felicity and whoever she's talking to - he can hazard a guess - obviously hadn't noticed him come in. He notices that she's not by her computers.

If he had to take a guess, he would say she's in the training room.

"I see you every day." Roy wants to scoff at that. Like that means anything.

"When was the last time you talked to me?"

"I'm talking to you now."

"Oliver."

There's a pause before the man sighs. "What do you want me to say, Felicity?"

Roy can imagine the blonde shrugging her shoulders, giving him an exasperated look. "I don't know, Oliver. But say _something._ I get that me being pregnant might make you uncomfortable but trust me when I say that no one's nearly as uncomfortable with this as I am."

There's another long pause. "Are you...?" Keeping it. Aborting it.

"I don't know. I... I think I want to keep it."

Oliver lets out a short hum, and there's more silence.

"I'm sorry," Felicity starts again. "I was wrong in hiding it from you. And I know you're mad that I told Roy first, but he already knew something was wrong and you two already had enough to deal with and I didn't want to put that pressure on you and I didn't know how you would react and I panicked."

"It's..." He stops himself, and Roy knows why. Saying _it's okay_ would be a lie, but saying anything else would be wrong. "I understand why you did it. I just..."

Roy doesn't know what happens next, but something does because there's a moment before Oliver releases a sigh.

"I'm..." He searches for the words. "Sorry I reacted the way I did. I'm not mad at you, or at Roy." The last bit is said a bit begrudgingly and Roy tries not to feel offended. _That's why I'm sleeping with your sister,_ he taunts in his head, and he ignores how utterly childish that is. "I was just..."

"Me, too," Felicity agrees, and Roy can hear the smile in her voice. "So we're good?"

Oliver chuckles. "We're good." Roy hears the clacking of heels and is about to hide, when Oliver calls her again. He doesn't know what's said as it's whispered in the woman's ear, but Felicity gasps. Roy strains to hear more, but gives up, realizing that whatever happens now is intimate and way above his pay grade.

He leaves the blanket on her chair and goes back to work.

She doesn't call him down again.

He spends the next day with Thea. It's not like he doesn't spend every day with her, but with all this drama with Felicity, he hasn't had a decent moment to enjoy the fact that he has a girlfriend who's willing to stick with him through all of his bullshit.

Not to mention the fact that she's hot.

Just to spite Oliver, they hang out in her room all day. Of course, hang out loosely translates to making out, groping and ripping clothes off.

When his phone buzzes, he detaches himself from her for a moment to look at it.

It's Oliver.

A nervous feeling rises within him. It seems like a bad omen. He knows it's ridiculous, but he can't shake the feeling that Oliver just _knows_ what he's doing right now, and this call is his warning before he ends up with an arrow in his head.

"_Roy."_

He glances down at his girlfriend - half-naked, annoyed and staring at him with those eyes that leave him no choice.

He tosses the phone to the side, still ringing, and pounces on the girl below him.

He walks into the Foundry with a big grin on his face that night. Which, admittedly, might not have been the best idea since he's known for smiling about as much as Oliver. But he doesn't give a damn because he has had an amazing day, fuck you very much.

Apparently, he's not the only one.

He walks in to laughter. Full on, head thrown back, eyes crinkling at the edges, clutching your sides, belly laughs.

It's possibly the scariest but most beautiful thing he's ever heard.

Oliver's eyes immediately snap to him when he walks in, but his smile doesn't drop and he doesn't give Roy a death glare or anything.

Call him crazy, but Roy calls that improvement.

"Roy!" Felicity calls when she notices he's there. "Where've you been, we've been calling you all day."

He gives her an odd look, then checks his phone and, yup, there it is. Fifteen missed calls, from each of his team mates. "Sorry, I was working." Which wasn't necessarily a lie. He _was_ with his boss all day and he _is_ exhausted now, and he _has_ been in the club for the last hour, so yes. He was working. Very hard.

Oliver doesn't buy it, of course. His smile goes from real to really intimidating. It's the one he always gave Roy before he was let in on the little secret.

Dig nudges the man. Obviously today has been too good, and over protective brother!Oliver is not allowed to be a thing.

Roy doesn't know what happened but he likes it.

Oliver clears his throat and stands up straight from where he was leaning against Felicity's desk. "Now that you're here," he gives Roy a warning look. "We have an announcement to make."

Roy raises an eyebrow. Dig smiles even wider and chuckles, shaking his head and Felicity looks down, trying to hide her blush.

"I don't know if you've heard or not, but..." Oliver slips an arm around the woman's waist, pulling her into him. "We're having a baby."

Roy's expression only causes everyone to laugh even more. It's not like he didn't expect Oliver and Felicity to get together, eventually. He just wasn't expecting for it to happen while she was pregnant.

And there was always the question of...

He shakes his head. It doesn't matter if the baby is Oliver's or not, because Roy knows for a fact that Oliver will be the one that baby calls daddy.

He lets out a small laugh. "Congratulations."

Felicity gives him a bright look. "Congratulations to you, Roy. You're going to be an uncle. You, too, Dig."

Roy blinks at that. He figured Dig was going to get such a huge title. And probably even godfather. (Later, he finds out that Dig and the deceased Tommy were both granted that particular title.) But him? It makes it all so real. His relationship with Thea, too.

He's treading ridiculously close to teary territory, so he clears his throat and tries to give a nonchalant look, but he fails as a laughing Felicity launches herself into his arms.

Looking around the circle at their little family, Roy only knows what thing for sure -

This baby's going to be spoiled rotten.

(And somehow, yes, this is his life. But he's not complaining.)


End file.
